This photograph was taken in the north of Iceland in the geothermal pool of an active volcanic crater located along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a site where the North American and Eurasian Tectonic Plates converge. This early piece is part of a long term and ongoing series of performative gestures in geologically active locations.

We Form Geology, 2012-13

Wood encrusted in new geothermal mineral deposit

This geological artwork formed over 9 months in the Blue Lagoon, an active geothermal spring in Iceland. The piece began as a drawing, was scanned, reformatted and fed into a laser cutter, made into a wooden stencil, submerged into the Lagoon and left to encrust in a new silica-rich mineral deposit. The sculpture is part of the ongoing series Physical Geology.

The Hall of Rocks and Minerals, 2014

Historical geology collection with sculpture made of wood encrusted in new limestone.

Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery

This installation in The Hall of Rocks of Minerals at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery features historical objects from the museums’ collections, alongside a new limestone artwork formed in the Fontaines Pétrifiantes in France. The Hall of Rocks and Minerals is on permanent view at The new Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery and is the outcome of a four year appointment as the Artist-Curator of Geology for the new museum.

Felt Events, 2014

Performance

In 2014 I invited a small audience on an evening journey to the Isle of Staffa off the west coast of Scotland, where I delivered a new, intimate spoken-word performance at the mouth of Fingal’s Cave on the Isle of Staffa, off the west coast of Scotland. The title, “Felt Events”, refers both to the term seismologists use to describe earthquakes and to an early body of work I made in 1998 shortly after moving to Scotland from New York. Part of Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland.

Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana), 2016

Installation view at Fujiya Gallery, Beppu, Japan

Ceramic and sandstone encrusted in new geothermal mineral deposit

These geological artworks formed over 18 months in geothermal pools throughout the city of Beppu in Kyushu, Japan. The sculptures are part of the ongoing series entitled Physical Geology.

Installation view of the sculptures in the solo exhibition The Library at National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh in 2013. The Fontaines Pétrifiantes in France was founded seven generations ago to create limestone sculptures made via the same process that forms stalactites in a cave. Inside the cave, objects rapidly encrust in new layers of stone. The sculptures in The Mineral Body formed over four months in the caves of the Fontaines Pétrifiantes.

Physical Geology (a field guide to new landmass in three forms), 2011

Hard Ground Copper Plate Etching

A large scale hard ground copper plate etching on Somerset paper featuring drawings and texts about new landmass of a biological, geological and cultural nature – from body stones and sculptures formed in caves to volcanic crystals and lava bombs.

Lava Stamping Implements 1-10, 2012

Mild Steel

Installation view of the solo exhibition Hand Held Lava at the Schering Stiftung in Berlin, which focused on volcanic phenomena and the interplay of life cycles between humans and volcanoes, juxtaposing artworks in poetic relation to historical artifacts. The image includes a display of the full set of 10 lava stamping implements alongside a historical lava medallion from the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, a film diptych and – as a precursor to volcanic activity – a series of drawings made with heated lava stamps. The set of lava stamps featured in the exhibition are embossed with the names of specific volcanoes, as well as the men and women who love and study them. The stamps are able to withstand temperatures of liquid magma at 1200 ̊C and are for use in the creation of a new series of lava medallions during an accessible volcanic eruption.

Physical Geology plate I, 2013

Hand-coloured Hard Ground Copper Plate Etching

One print from a series of five hand-coloured hard ground copperplate etchings.

This Super 8 film diptych was shot in two volcanic field sites – in Hawaii at the point where lava enters the ocean creating new land, and over three weeks in the deep arctic winter in Iceland at the Blue Lagoon, charting the formation of geothermally occurring sculptures.